Historia

ESTATUAREN LEGE ORGANIKOA

1. -Introduction

The author of the text titled Estatuaren Lege Organikoa was Franco
and the subject of it was establishment of the basic laws for running Spain.
There was a need to institutionalize The Spanish regime in order to give an impression of having laws and being a democratic country. However, the organic law was absolutely superficial, as it was nothing but a matter of appearance.
This text was published in 1967, when the regime underwent some years of openness.
The text is a political one, since it contains political issues concerning Franco´s policy. In addition, it is a first-hand level text as it doesn´t contain any valoration or personal opinion about it.

2.Context

The situation in which the Organic law of the State was published was
when Franco´s dictatorship was completely established.
Franco and his party (National Movement) reached power after the
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), which left the country in a disastrous situation in all aspects: economic, political, social and cultural arenas were destroyed, and the society remained divided in two groups: The ones backing Franco´s regime and the ones opposing it.
Policy that Franco and his cabinet adopted in the War aftermath was that of isolationism: Franco broke all the links with the outside world to show both to the external countries and to Spaniards as well that Spain was self-sufficient and totally independent. The years in which this policy was applied were called The Autarky years.
However, once the dictatorship was established, the aims of the government changed. Now Spain wanted to be accepted in the supranational institutions, such as, the EEC (European Economy Community), but these efforts were in vain since Spain was sure to be a non-democratic country. Thus, what Franco did in order to be accepted in such institutions was to create some laws to demonstrate Spain was a democratic country, as we can see in the text. These laws were just an appearance, as I have already mentioned.

3.Text analysis

In the text, where The Organic law of the state is mentioned, (or
Established), Spain is defined as a monarchy. Franco wanted to restore monarchy. To do so, Prince Juan Carlos would be the king of Spain, but only after Franco´s death. The sovereignty was denoted as national, but in fact it wasn´t national at all, since there was no national institutions or any sign of democracy. Although sometimes referendums were held.
Those were not free because they were manipulated. After all, Spain was a non- communist country. This definition was very beneficial as Americans wanted to have military bases in Europe, and Spain provided them subspace to have them in Spanish territory so that Franco´s regime was included in international congress, such as the United Nations.-
As long as the bases of Franco´s Spain are concerned the Unity-Party and its principles have to be mentioned. That party, which was leaded by Franco himself, was the single one allowed. In addition, self-governments or autonomous regions were not allowed. Spain was just one; the government was centralized, with no divisions or regions inside it.
Furthermore, during Franco´s dictatorship, only Spaniards that supported the regime were able to have a public position; that was the 2Conditio sine qua non.

4.Conclusion

The main aim of this king of documents was to keep the appearance of being a democratic country with institutions so that Spain could be accepted internationally.
In addition, at the end of the text it can be seen that it is the first time where Franco delegates some attribution to the Head of Government, who was Carrero Blanco. The purpose of the creation of this public charge was to assure that the dictatorship continued after Franco´s death.
However, nobody in the foreign countries believed Spain was a democratic country, since it could not be hidden that it was a dictatorship. Therefore, it was not accepted in the international institutions.
This law defined a dictatorship. However, by the time the organic law was published, opposition has already started. It consisted of four main groups:
-Workers, who asked for improvements in both working conditions and in the salaries.
-Students, claiming for freedom. They often organized manifestations.
- The church, asking for social measures.
- Political parties in exile (Munich-Europe Movement´s Congress) and autonomies protest, being the most visible ETA. ETA represented the refusal of the Basque Country to both Franco´s regime and Spain.

EUSKAL HERRIKO AUTONOMIA ESTATUTUA

The text titled Euskal Herriko Autonomia Estatutua consists of the main articles of the Basque Statute. Published after both the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and Adolfo Suarezs government had ratified it and given the approval on the 18^th of December in 1979, as it can be seen at the bottom of the text. By that time, 1979 Constitution was being applied and therefore, the existence of Autonomies allowed.
It is a juridical or legal document, since it is a law similar to a Constitution.
The author of the text is the Basque Government, that is to say, the EAJ-PNV, but as it has to be ratified by the king and the central government to be applied, it is published in the name of the government.
It is a 1^st-hand level text, as it doesn´t contain any opinion or personal valuation of it.

The historical context on which the Basque Statute was approved was that of the Transition. It was made after the establishment of democracy, which was largely due to the collapse of Franco´s regime when he died in 1975.
Adolfo Suarez was a key figure in this period, as he knew and was right about the need of changes I order to transform Spain into a democratic country. Even thought, he considered very abrupt, since he had to control those who supported franconism so that sublevations were avoided.
Included in these changes, Adolfo Suarez made a political Reform Bill and a referendum. He settled clearly that he wanted democracy, but to do so he needed to assure Spaniards wanted it too. Therefore, an open Referendum was held (not a manipulated one, as Franco did), where the anxiety about being a democratic country as the main outcome.
Therefore, he called for Elections, to establish a totally democratic Spain. The result for the central Government was that UCD won, with Suarez as a leader of this central political party. However, the PSOE had also good results. On the contrary, IP, which was the right wing party of Fraga, along with the Communist Party, didn´t manage to get favourable results.
As long as the Basque Country is concerned, here it was the Nationalist party EAJ-PNV who get an overwhelming majority.
With the victory of the UCD, Adolfo Suarezs government started to draw a new Constitution, which was a frame that allowed the existence of autonomous entities. This new constitution is known as the 1979 Constitution.
Autonomies can b created due to mainly three reasons. Among the historical one, we have the example of Catalonia and the Basque Country, as those had Fueros and other statues in the post. Provinces having similar economic interest can join together to create autonomies. Other reasons for that may be the geographical one. For instance, the islands belonging to Spain that are relatively near each other can join together.

First of all, it has to be mentioned that his new Statute is mainly based on that of Gernika or 1936, which was applied just in some places of Bizkaia since it was approved after the beginning of the Civil war and Gipuzkoa was already in the hands of the sublevators. Another attempt was done during the II.Republic with Lizarra´s Statute. This Statute was never approved owing to the fact that it contained some religions references which were against the so controversial 26^th article of the 1931 Constitution.
The new Autonomy Statute had or consisted of six essential points.
1.Although 1979 Constitution allowed the existence of autonomies it made it clear that any attempt of demanding independence would be denied. Autonomies were allowed, but Spain could not be divided into independent territories.
2.The territories where this auto government would affect are Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Araba.
3.There is an interesting Reference to Navarra. In the Basque Statute, which is the one in force yet, State that Navarre would be accepted as part of the Basque Country if it wanted to. Navarre can become part of the Basque Country any time it wanted.
4.As long as province institutions are mentioned, the Basque Country Statute mentions the existence of the Deputations, which are provincial entities responsible for the economic issues, such as the Economic concert, the taxes, etc.
5.The language policy is that in The Basque Country two languages have the same rights and are both officials: Spanish and Basque. After a long time, Basque is again co-official.
6.The fields of intervention of the Basque Autonomy are going to be the creation of public order (by means of the formation of the Basque Police- Ertzainak) and laws. In addition, it is stated that further transferences of powers would be made in the future.

As it had the ratification (required to be applied) of both the king and the central government, the 1979 Basque Statute came into force. In fact, is the one in force nowadays.
Other transferences have been made, such as; the powers of Education, Health Service, and tax collection that now are dues of the Basque Government. Moreover, it was almost all the powers of any government.
In the period in which the Basque Statute was made the Nationalist party (moderate nationalist) EAJ_PNV was the leading party in the Basque Country. Other existing political parties, which were more revolutionaries, considered this statute not to be enough.